The Summer School multidisciplinary experience in the Savena, Idice and Sillaro Valleys in Bologna Province.

The Summer schools are international graduated courses organized by the University of Bologna, that may last from one to four weeks and they normally take place in summer, mostly outside of traditional academic structures. The CSSAS (Soil Study Center) in 2007 has organized the 1st Summer school edition entitled “Recreational and touristic itinerary planning in a mountain agro ecosystem of particular historical, archaeological and environmental interest”, in English and Italian language, that award a certificate of attendance equivalent to 3 ECTS credits recognised by the University of Bologna. The school aims to provide new tools to understand and interpret in a recreational and touristic way the environmental, historical and cultural amenities of the agro-forest landscape of the Savena, Idice and Sillaro valleys, in the central-east Italian Apennine in Bologna province. This specific area, that was described for its beauty by J.W. Goethe in 1876 and by M. de Montaigne in 1580-1581, is extended trough Loiano, Monghidoro, Monterenzio and Monzuno communes. The area is characterized by one of the most complex geology of the north Italian Apennine and its multiplicity of agricultural and ecological peculiarity; it is rich in history, culture, archaeological sites and museums. Soil study has been introduced as a new instrument to investigate the environmental complexity and the impact of ancient population on the territory. Modern cartography, aerolphotogrammetry, remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) are some of the instruments and technologies used to construct itinerary with a multidisciplinary approach that involved academic and professional teachers of many subjects (architecture, archaeology, astronomy, agro environmental and technological science). The school was supported by Austrian and Hungherian international partners (Insitut für Bodenforschung UNIVERSITATE FUER BODENKULTUR WIEN and EÖTVÖS-LORÁNDUNIVERSITÄT– BUDAPEST) as well as Italian (Bologna Observatory – Telescope of Loiano, Soil Science Italian Society (SISS), Council for the Research in Agriculture (CRA)). The didactic programme developed for 80 hours, divided in 32 classroom lessons, 36 practical classes and 12 workshops. The main subject was the environmental knowledge of the territory (orography, climatology and hydrography); the analyses of the historic and cultural context with a particular reference to the Etruscan-Celtic archaeological area and the study of geological and vegetational characteristics of the Bolognese Apennine. The Summer School, a new educational instrument of the Bologna University, is a multidisciplinary experience for the scientific dissemination applied to the environmental and sustainable development added to the multicultural exchange between students, teachers and the inhabitants. Not only wide intensive courses but also the partecipant’s possibility to live in this particular Apenninic area, meeting the community and trying the local traditions. Due to the success of last year the 2nd edition of the Summer School is starting.